When She Wouldn't Hear
by Abboz
Summary: Set in the SwitchVerse.  After "A Bit Domestic".  It's their first night back together since Jackie crossed universes after Rose, Pete finds he's unable to sleep and ends up confessing how he feels, despite believing she's asleep. Jackie/Pete


The sound of Pete's voice gently drew Jackie out of her dreams. Pausing mid sentence he leant down to kiss the top of his wife's head; the tenderness made her smile but she otherwise didn't move, perfectly content to just lie there and listen to his steady breathing. After a moment he began to stroke her hair, mumbling some incoherent words under his breath. She was about to ask him to speak up when he did just that, apparently still unaware that she was awake.

"I know I'm not very good at expressing my feelings, Jacks." He looked down at her, her eyes were closed and she looked content. He wondered if she was dreaming. "It's just looking at you now I'm suddenly able to say so much more." He smiled to himself; he should have expected to only have the words when she wouldn't hear them. "I just need you to know how much you mean to me. And it might seem nuts considering we've spent so long in different universes but you're the one for me, the only one, Jackie. I never thought I could feel this way. You've made me believe." She shifted against him, trying to resist asking exactly what he meant about believing; he was opening up to her and she needed to let him. "Don't you know I love you?" There was laughter in his breath as he exhaled. "Don't you know you're beautiful?" Jackie smiled to herself, unable to keep from instinctively pulling him closer. Sometimes she thought their life together was almost too perfect to last, even when she considered everything they'd been through to get there, but when she was lying there in his arms she knew the fear would pass. "Honestly, every day with you is just… special. You have made me believe." He consciously stopped himself from saying any more, knowing his words were useless if she wasn't awake to hear them, he always found that once he'd started he wanted to tell her everything.

Jackie knew he was restless and couldn't sleep; he was still playing with the ends of her hair as if something was playing on his mind, or maybe he'd just missed her. "What do you mean I've made you believe?"

"I thought you were asleep." She shook her head against him. "Oh, well I just… see, Jacks, I've never been good with words, there's a reason I don't often talk about stuff like this."

"But when you do you're so much better than you think, sweetheart. Just speak from your heart, tell me what you meant."

"It's just… I was just thinking about how horrible my life here was without you, and the crazy thing is, before you came into my life here I was losing faith in love." He smiled at how stupid that now felt. "Even before meeting Rose and the Doctor here, things weren't great, I doubted if I had or ever would be in love, I mean I actually doubted that you were real, I was _so scared_ that I'd just made you up, and the love we have, and even seeing those two so in love didn't help restore my faith in love." He kissed Jackie's forehead. "But then I saw you there in that corridor and you came back with me and I got a second chance, we both did. This is just so different to anything I've ever felt before. You've made me believe in true love, you made me believe in love at first sight when I first set eyes on you all those years ago and fell completely in love with you, I believe in us more than anything." He wiped a stray tear from his cheek. "Thank you, Jackie."

"You're welcome." She extracted herself from him a little, shifting so she was in a better position to kiss him.

"Honestly, I'm so in love with you."

Jackie smiled, fingers tracing along his cheekbones and catching the tears that escaped. She hadn't seen him so emotional since their son was born. "I love you too." She kissed him once more. "I can't imagine my life without you, or Rose, and now we've even got little Tony too. I wouldn't trade our little family of five for anything."

"Me neither, love."


End file.
